Forever and a Day
by Larania Drake
Summary: After all is said and done, what is eternity?


Forever and a Day

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Disclaimer: Pet Shop of Horrors does not belong to me, it belongs to Urban Vision and I make no money from this work of fanfiction at all.

Warnings and notes: Contains shonen ai, AU for the ending of the manga, as I have not read it yet but heard LOTS about it.

            The moon silently glided overhead, in her nightly journey over the earth. Those humans not sleeping were scurrying around in their routines, engrossed in their lives, loves, and deaths. Just another evening in L.A.

            In the midst of this, Detective Leon Orcot slept, half naked in his boxers, blankets tossed off in his troubled sleep, sweating in his nightmares. About Him.

            Leon? A voice seemed to whisper in the space between his ears and his brain, not breaking the silence of his apartment. Leon…

            "D?" he said aloud, sitting bolt upright in bed. Blinking away his filmed eyes, he nearly knocked over a half empty beer can reaching for the light. Clicking on the lamp, he winced at the sudden painful brightness. Scanning the walls and straining his ears, he found himself alone. 

            "Jee-zus Christ, Orcot, you are loosing it. Again," he huffed, and twisted the knob of his lamp again, flopping over, bouncing the bed. "It ain't him, he ain't comin' back to you… Shit," he mumbled, rolling on to his belly and burying his face in his flat pillow. It was akin to a child covering his eyes when he didn't want to see something.

            "Oh, Leon," sighed that voice in his mind, accompanied by a fond, sad chuckle. Leon didn't turn to look this time, just addressed the voice directly.

            "What are you doing here, Count," he hissed, love, rage, pain, sadness, and most depressingly, resignation warring for domination in his tone. In his mind's eye he could see him in one of those stupid (elegant) dress things (cheongsams) he always wore, mismatched eyes looking at him almost hungrily. The Count held him in that gaze for a long time, and Leon stared right back, for the first time without masks of any kind between them.

            "I'm here," Count D began, and paused. Leon realized he wasn't moving his lips when he spoke. _Oh, great, he's using telele- tele- what's it called, mind reading,_ Leon groused, distracting himself with trivialities. D smiled at the feel of his beloved's thoughts. 

            "I'm here to take you with me, Leon, my grandfather has said we could be together," he continued, making the blond cop's heart leap and beat in his throat. His wish, his fantasy ever since D had left was possible! They could live out the rest of their lives together, he could finally figure out the Count-

            D reached out a hand, and Leon's arm started to move to take it-

            "What's the catch," he murmured softly back, withdrawing back to the bed, lying there. A cold, leaden feeling pooled in the pit of his stomach, and the Count looked at him oddly. 

            "No catches, ai ren," the beautiful kami said, confused, and somewhat hurt. "You will become immortal, just take my hand…"

            There was a moment where Leon did nothing, deep thought creasing his brow. Count gestured impatiently. "Come, Leon, come!"

            Silence.

            "…no…"

            "WHAT?" Count D yelled in outrage and surprise.

            "I can't, D," Leon said, sadness making his voice heavy. 

            "Any human would kill for this opportunity," snarled back his love, " and you would waste it? Why? Are you so ungrateful, so foolish-!" He reached out to beat his fists on the blond, when Leon put his palms over them.

            "No, not ungrateful. Just human, and I am not going to cheapen that." At the Count's puzzled look, he elaborated. 

            "I've always noticed that you forget the perspective humans have. You pity humans for their short lives and for their limited views. Yet its you I pity." This caused a soft hiss from the kami, and an even more confused expression. 

            "When one is immortal, you begin to take life for granted. You live so long, that things like love and hate become the same thing, and very things that make a human's life precious are unimportant. Love only lasts forever if you are mortal. Pain only ends, if you are mortal. True, we do stupid things, we get hurt and die. People waste the gift they have been given. Yet, it is still ours. Ours to embrace, or loose, or to give. That is what makes it so precious. It might be an illusion, this reality I live in… but I must grasp it and hold it. Or my life is nothing."

            Count D looked at him like he was going to say something caustic, and Leon raised his hand. "I know, human life is nothing much to begin with. I wouldn't give anything to be what you are, however. I wouldn't want your power, your lifespan. I love you, Count D," he admitted," and if this came down to giving my life for you, I would do it without thinking twice. My life is all I can give you. What if we started hating each other? What if YOU were killed? Humans are born to die. So," he struggled with this part, "so, I will die."

            Leon sighed and scratched his head. "Did that make any sense?"

            D had stopped looking at him. "Very impassioned, Leon. Yet, when you are old, worn out and about to die, will you still think that way? When your bones creak in the rain, won't you wish for the youth I could have given you?"

            "What, old age? I doubt I'll live THAT long," Leon joked, and then covered his mouth when he saw the stricken look on D's face. "D…"

            Leon leaned over and kissed him gently, wiping a stray tear from his cheek. "This isn't for me, D. You are offering this for yourself. You are afraid to be lonely."

            "What do you know of loneliness, that stretches for eternity..?" he spat back.

            "Point made," Leon said. "I don't have to worry about eternity. I don't want to take life for granted. I don't want to ever take YOU for granted."

            "Leon, please?" came one last whisper, D's beautiful eyes full of tears.

            Another gentle, painful kiss unsealed from D's lips. " Everything ends, D. Even immortals. I'll be waiting for you on whatever is on the other side."

            D couldn't take it any more. He faded away, leaving Leon there, sighing, his heart aching at what had happened, opening his eyes to see nothing but the darkness of his pillowcase.

            "I'll love you though, with all my heart and all my life. However long that might be," he said. There was nothing more he could give D.

            No matter how much he might have wished otherwise.

End.


End file.
